Enormous expenditures are made via traditional media, such as television, radio and newspapers/magazines, in order to provide consumers with marketing messages. According to some reports, in 1995, TV and cable generated approximately $44.5 billion in advertising revenue, while radio generated $14 billion and newspapers/magazines generated $51.5 billion. Direct Marketing, which also counts Telemarketing, totaled just over $150 billion in 1997, making it far and away the largest segment of the advertising world. By comparison, advertising on the Internet generated only $0.9 billion.
However, the Internet has enjoyed, and continues to enjoy, unprecedented growth. It is estimated that, within 5 years, over 150 million people will have access to and use the Internet. Therefore, it is likely that the Internet will dramatically increase its share of advertising revenues in the near future.
The traditional advertising philosophy is to provide marketing messages that will be viewed and heard by as many people as possible who might be interested in the content of the marketing message. For instance, an advertisement for a brand of young men's clothing may be placed in a magazine, which is typically sold to young men. In this manner, the owner of the brand of clothing hopes that the advertisement is seen by people who are likely to be interested in the product advertised. Unfortunately, even people in the same demographic group (e.g.—young men) have widely different interests. Thus, only a small portion of the readers of the magazine are likely to be interested in the advertisement, and the owner of the brand has not received the full benefit of the advertising expenditure.
Thus, there is a need for a system that enables a customized marketing message to be provided to an Internet user.